Don't think for a second that many Americans did not know about the communist influence. We had no Internet and not much talk radio -- not because listeners were not interested but because liberals were filling complaints under the FCC "Fairness Doctrine" threatening the station owners' licenses.
The "reporting" sucked though Time and U.S. News & World Report did a fair job and there were still conservative newspapers in many major cities. There were various limited circulation publications that were available.
IMO it is critical to our survival today that we continue to explore and expose what happened here during the Vietnam war. The same is happening today and as Mr. Pacepa noted the lies from the Vietnam era tarnish us to this day and today's traitors need only build upon them.
I hope to live long enough to see some of the treason of that era and this be punished by hangings. After fair trials of course.
I second your very well stated wish. My anger about the treason and lies from that era and earlier ones, such as Roosevelt's and McCarthy's, can only be satiated by the means you suggest. Now we're seeing exactly the same M.O. again with enemies like Soros, Ickes and apparatchiks from moveon.org, A.N.S.W.E.R., etc.